15 comments:

Is this where the stereotype of the librarian in a cardigan originates? Our information desk is in direct line with the double doors of our entrance and on a cold windy day, the chill sweeps in to envelop us. We've all learned to dress in layers (it doesn't set off the fire alarm the way the bonfires do)!

If you decide to build a bonfire and are short on kindling, use the copies of Office 97 Simplified and Netscape Communicator 4.5 for Dummies Quick Reference that your library still holds because one librarian thinks that someone might still need them or that they are good “historical resources”.

P.S., “HVAC” refers to “Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning” systems – the climate control systems for large buildings. [Is this site not wonderful? Snarky and educational.]

We always have sweaters around the back office... Some of the librarians keep space heaters in their cubicles, too.

Another great tip is keeping a hair dryer around for those days when it's cold and raining. Rather than sit in wet clothes, grab the communal hair dryer and run to the bathroom with it to dry off your sopping clothes. Makes for happier workers, if a little eccentric. At least we're dry and warm!

You need to work in a building with the controlling thermostats in the entrance lobby to the sixth-floor car park and the heat output regulators in the cellar. Fur coats all summer and Bermuda shorts at Chrimbo.

Layers do help, but our system is so old and so unreliable, that we can go from a meat locker to a rain forest within a few feet. It might be hard to explain the constant strip tease of adding and removing layers as one walks through the building.

At the moment, I am sitting in my office wearing a cammie, suit jacket, light-weight outer jacket, and my rain jacket. I'm still freezing. My breath is practically visible and my hands are so cold it's hard to work the keyboard. A few feet away in another office, a colleague is fanning herself because she is ready to expire from heatstroke.